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Gallery: Lahore under attack

The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for three near simultaneous attacks on security services buildings in the eastern city of Lahore [AFP]

The attacks began around 9:00 local time on Thursday when gunmen blasted their way into the regional headquarters of Pakistan's Federal Investigation Agency [AFP]

As the attack on the FIA building was taking place, a police training school in another part of the city came under attack [AFP]

At another location close to Lahore's main international airport the training centre of Pakistan elite police force came under fire [AFP]

As the attacks were under way in Lahore, a suicide bomber rammed his car into a police station in the northwestern town of Kohat, killing eight [AFP]

Following the attacks Pakistan's interior minister described the raids as the launch of a guerilla war [AFP]

Outside the FIA building in Lahore a bomb disposal squad member removed what police said was a suicide jacket from a body of an attacker [AFP]

Special forces officials recovered an arsenal of arms and explosives [EPA]

The latest strikes again highlight Pakistan's fragile security situation as the Taliban move inward away from Pakistan's border areas and into the country's major cities [AFP]

The attacks come as the government prepares to launch a ground offensive in South Waziristan. The Taliban have declared that in response that they will take the battle to Pakistan major urban centres [AFP]